Endocarditis: Treatment | The Heart Hospital Baylor

How is Endocarditis Treated?

Infective endocarditis (IE) is treated with antibiotics and sometimes with heart surgery.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics usually are given for two to six weeks through an intravenous (IV) line inserted into a vein. You're often in a hospital for at least the first week or more of treatment. This allows your doctor to make sure the medicine is helping.

If you're allowed to go home before the treatment is done, the antibiotics are almost always continued by vein at home. You'll need special care if you get IV antibiotic treatment at home. Before you leave the hospital, your medical team will arrange for you to receive home-based care so you can continue your treatment.

You also will need close medical follow-up, usually by a team of doctors. This team often includes a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases, a cardiologist, and a heart surgeon.

Surgery

Sometimes
surgery​ is needed to repair or replace a damaged heart valve or to help clear up IE. For example, IE caused by fungi often requires surgery. This is because this type of IE is harder to treat than IE caused by bacteria.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System's subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano or Baylor Health Care System.